Delta 50% Bonus on Mileage Transfers Between Accounts

Delta’s transfer miles page shows a 50% bonus for moving miles from one account to another (at a cost of a peny a mile). When you click the link to the offer it takes you to the page from the 100% transfer bonus offer which expired December 16th (and was actually pulled at the beginning of that day rather than the end, blocking my plans to take advantage of the bonus at the last minute). So we don’t know how long this one is scheduled to last.

I won’t be taking advantage of the 50% bonus. While I think that a 100% bonus offer is a great opportunity to effectively buy miles at 1.1 cents apiece, and despite all of the drawbacks of Delta Skymiles (I’m the person who coined the term Skypesos, after all) they’re certainly worth a penny apiece when used for Air France business class for instance, there are plenty of things you can do to maximize value of the points. I don’t think that a 50% transfer bonus, effectively buying Delta miles at twice that price, is worthwhile.

Some will find it useful to clear out orphan points, especially to top off towards a specific award. But without a defined redemption pending, and since Delta miles don’t’ expire, I’d wait for the return of a 100% bonus to return before jumping on the offer.

More From View from the Wing

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

>>I don’t think that a 50% transfer bonus, effectively buying Delta miles at twice that price, is worthwhile.

Actually no bonus would be twice the price of the 100% bonus offer. A 50% bonus offer would make the price 50% more than the 1.1 cpm at the 100% bonus offer. Lots of people have math problems with these bonus offers.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.

Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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